[india-drug] 25 years of essential medicines

[Edrug.e-drug@usa.healthnet.org]

E-DRUG: 25 years of essential medicines
------------------------------------------


Twenty-five years of essential medicines
                  
WHO Bulletin, November, 2002, 80 (11), pp 913-4
Jonathan D. Quick[1], Hans V. Hogerzeil[2], Germán Velásquez[3], Lembit
Rägo[4]
                  
The twentieth century opened with only one widely available modern
medicine: acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin). In the 1940s the first
antibiotic, the first mass produced antimalarial, and the first
antitubercular were introduced. The 1950s and 1960s saw the rapid
introduction of oral contraceptives, medicines for diabetes, and then
 medicines for mental illness, many infectious diseases, cardiovascular
diseases, and cancer. By the 1970s effective medicines - though not
always ideal - existed for nearly every major illness. Yet for half the
world's population, it was as if they were still living in the
nineteenth century.
                 
For them, modern medicines were unavailable, unaffordable, of poor
quality,or ineffective because not properly used.
                  
 In 1975 the World Health Assembly introduced the concepts of 

________________________________________________________________________
Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV.
       visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com
The INDIA-DRUG discussion group is a partnership between SATELLIFE
(www.healthnet.org), WHO Essential Drugs and Medicines Policy
(www.who.ch), and the Delhi Society for the Promotion of the
Rational Use of Drugs (DSPRUD) in India.

To send a message to india-drug, write to: india-drug@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe india-drug OR unsubscribe india-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: india-drug-help@usa.healthnet.org